Rose Petals
by Basement-Harem
Summary: The ending of one life can lead to the beginning of another.... Written by a friend. Please Review. HGSS AU.
1. The discovery

**XII- this story was written by my friend, and I said I would post it for her. and I did. Anyways, she doesn't own any of the characters, cause if she did she wouldn't be writing this.**

Velvety crimson rose petals gently fell to the ground, mixing thick and fast with pearly white heartbroken tears and deep drops of red blood. With a clatter a silver dagger, covered in the rich red of blood fell to the floor on top of the pile of rose petals only to be joined shortly by a young women, her body racked with sobs and fresh cuts marring her skin. She was lost in her own world filled with pain where all she could hear was him, crying out her name again and again right before he died. She was so absorbed in this and in her suicidal thoughts that she failed to her the gentle footsteps that echoed across the cobble stoned floor.

A man joined her on the floor, his pale long-fingered hands reaching out and pulling her into his arms. She curled up against his chest, enjoying the comfort, no matter to her whom it was from. After a while she had cried herself into silence except for the occasional hiccup. She had not yet recognized who was holding her, and while half of her brain was trying to figure that out the other half was still living in a world of depression.

Finally her violent sobbing subsided, leaving her sniffling with the occasional rattling gasp or two. She was being cradled so that through her puffy, red swollen eyes, she couldn't make out the man holding her, but that was not her most pressing question. She found her sub-consciousness slipping into a woozy haze that meant sleep, and fighting it desperately, she managed to say,

"What are you doing here?" clearly, with the weariness of her soul dripping into her voice.

"Rescuing you." He replied very softly, almost with a caress in his voice. "You're safe with me, now sleep."

As soon as he began to speak, Hermione had already began to feel the warmth and comfort radiating from him, and embraced the first feeling of safety and comfort she'd had in an extremely long time. But, before she felt that she could fall into the oh-so-tempting sleep, she found herself asking yet another inquiry.

"Why, though? Why do you care?" she said, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice.

"Always asking questions" the voice said back, obviously dodging her question.

Latching onto the fact he was avoiding answering her she pressed again. "I won't be able to sleep unless I know. Just tell me."

"I honestly don't know Hermione." he admitted with a sigh. "Why do you force yourself to endure self-inflicted pain?" he asked back, but she had already fallen into a deep slumber.

Sighing he tipped her back slowly and absent-mindedly stroked her honey-brown curls, all the while deep in thought. Why would someone with so much life -and such a good life at that- with friends, amazing grades, and a survivor of the War who had seen so much death, want to end their own life? It didn't make sense to him. He almost hadn't come tonight, because he didn't believe his informant.

Sadly he gazed at her now calm face, and brushed away a lock of her hair, before turning to look at her bloodied arms and wrists. He managed not to flinch and to control his nausea as he carefully began to clean and eventually try to heal the cuts. For the most part this worked, but some of the cuts on her left forearm stubbornly wouldn't heal. He had almost forgotten that when one inflicts pain purposely, that at least one will scar as a reminder. Even more disturbed then before, he continued about his task with a weary sigh.

Just as he had finished three winged people materialized in front of him two extremely somber the other grinning a wicked grin.

"Hello." He said, inclining his head to each in acknowledgement while tightening his grip slightly on Hermione.

"Greetings Snape." The three said in unison.

**XII- Please review, it would be really nice if you did**.


	2. Confrontation

AN:/ Hey people. If any of you have actually not given up on this story, then I'm amazed. I've gotten rid of the third chapter that was not a real chapter that was not added by my consent (Glares at XIII Welcome to my Nightmare pointedly) and I have completely rewritten Chapter 2 because in my personal opinion it sucked and needed major help, so yeah.

* * *

It had just dawned on him what he was doing. He had just lied to possibly the only three people who were more powerful then the Dark Lord himself had been, and on top of that was now taking a student into his personal chambers and more then that, was putting her in his bed. What else could he do he reasoned, she would have to be watched closely to make sure that this sudden suicidal behavior did not develop into something more. Not for the first time this evening, he wondered what could have pushed her this far.

Now, as he placed Hermione gently in his large bed and whistled for Niquita, he focused on turning his mind to the much more perilous task at hand. Maliaya, Jeihn and Alriah would be more then impatient by now. Snape turned away with a sigh and saw that Niquita was sitting there regarding him imperiously.

Niquita was a brilliant almost entirely black wolf with just a hint of silver running through her fur. Her blue-grey eyes were like chips of ice and she was intensely loyal to Severus. He had rescued her from an attack when she was a cub and nursed her back to health.

"I need you to watch over her and tell me the moment she wakes up." Snape said softly to the dog, kneeling down to stroke her head and look into her eyes.

Niquita made a discontented noise and looked at Hermione who twisted in her sleep contemptuously.

Severus chuckled low in his throat and whispered "I know, but it's for a short period of time and she needs or help. If you don't do it for her, do it for me okay?" The dog still looked disapproving but made a low growling noise and bowed her head as if agreeing.

Snape nodded once and stood up to his full height, sweeping out of the room quickly, not even bothering to glance back as Niquita leaped up onto the foot of his bed and settled there, intent on watching this stranger in her master's bed.

* * *

Three shadows detached themselves from the wall and materialized into human-like shapes, all frowning silently as Snape entered the room. He, spotting them assembled around his kitchen table, nodded once and swept past them silently before going over to a small cabinet and releasing the wards around it.

He didn't drink much, remembering what it had done to his Father so long ago, but he did have a occasional shot on difficult nights, usually after the old meetings, and hadn't gotten around to removing the liquor yet.

Bringing out a bottle, he poured himself a shot of amber liquid and downed it in one. He made to put away the bottle, but reconsidered, deciding to hold onto it. He may need more yet.

Turning to the three watching him he asked curtly in his deep voice, "anything I can get you?"

The two females frowns grew more pronounced and they declined with a sharp head jerk. The blonde male, however said, "A strong vodka, or brandy if you have it."

Severus nodded and turned back to the cabinet, before pulling out two more bottles, and re-setting the wards.

Striding over to the table in three large steps, he set the bottles down on the table and asked seriously, "What can I do for you?"

Two sets of eyebrows rose in surprise, but the blonde smiled almost knowingly at him and took the bottle of Vodka, poured himself a large glass, and downed it in one.

"Come now Maliaya, Alriah, did you really expect him to be totally oblivious? Especially you Alriah, he being your Kusari-Dzuki-Yochi and all."

The one he addressed as Alriah scowled at him pointedly, and he did not continue with the subject. The three conversed silently on a telepathic level while Severus waited with a façade of patience, he knew when dealing with three of the thirteen angels of death it was best not to push them. They seemed to be debating something of great importance.

Finally, a few glasses of Brandy later, the three broke of their intense conversation and turned to face him. All three pairs of eyes fixed him with an unblinking stare. The eyes of grey looked apprehensive, the eyes of sapphire looked amused and the red eyes looked contemptuous.

It was Alriah, her black wings twitching, who chose to speak first. "Sev-san," she began tentatively, brushing her midnight blue hair out of her face nervously, "You know that we owe you more then one great favor. I need hardly to go into details. However-"

She was cut off by a human yelp, an inhuman yelp and a loud crash that sounded from the next run over.

"Hermione." Snape muttered, half-standing already.

"Hermione?" all three of the demons said at the exact same time in varying tones, Maliaya mockingly, Alriah suspiciously, and the blonde-haired Jeihn half-amusedly.

"Miss. Granger then. My apologies, but this deserves me immediate attention." Severus said smoothly, getting up to deal with what sounded like a rather nasty situation.

"Wait." The three said in unison yet again.

"Will you stop that? It's very annoying." Snape said, trying to avoid the command.

"You will return as soon as you deal with this situation, and you will listen to what we have to say. If you even attempt to escape without hearing us out. We will not hesitate to use force to bring you back if we have to. You have been forewarned." Maliaya spoke, her red eyes glinting ominously as she swept the fiery crimson hair back off of her face.

Snape nodded once, cursing inwardly and left at a rather brisk pace for the room, not knowing just what chaos reined on the other side of the door.

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AN:/ Well, there you go a new and improved second chapter. Just a few notes for this one:

1. Obviously, since I started this before DH came into play, this will not be canon with it. It is AU, and more should become clearer as I continue.

2. The three OC characters and how they come into play will also become clearer as the plot line develops. Their names are ones of have made up, because I was too lazy to look them up properly this time around. Note: I also changed them from the original names, because I thought they were too confusing and difficult to pronounce.

3. Kusari-Dzuki-Yochi is Japanese, loosely translated into: Chain-to-Earth. If anyone can give me a more accurate translation, that would be appreciated.

4. I have no idea how long it will take me to update next, but hopefully it will be soon!!!!

Please review and tell me what you thought of the drastically changed chapter!


	3. Broken Down Angel

AN:// Well folks, it's been a while. I hope you al haven't completely given up on this story though. If you haven't read the re-vamped chapter II this won't make much sense, so I suggest you check just in case. Other then that, thanks to all of you who have stuck with this for so long. Just in case you don't know this is an au story now with a SSHG pairing.

XIII Welcome To My Nightmare- well well well, look who has written something after how many months??? any who, neither of us own harry potter, and if i did i woudn't be here. i would be rolling in my money. thank you for your time. on with the story (which i once again read before all of you)

Rose Petals

Chapter III: Broken Down Angel

Hermione woke up with a shuddering gasp from a horrifying dream. As she lay there panting and catching her breath, the truth struck her. It wasn't just a dream. It was real life. The battle and seeing him struck down, and running but being to late to save him, seeing the blood drain from his body and the sparkle die from his eyes-but, she frowned suddenly. She shouldn't still be having that dream. She shouldn't have been dreaming at all. She shouldn't even be alive. Something very peculiar was going on here.

She sat up cautiously, clutching the unfamiliar sheets to her petite body and her frown deepened as she realised that she had no idea where she was. Racking her brains she tried desperately to remember how her main intent last night had suddenly changed course. Hermione clearly remembered desecrating her skin, and she also remembered shattering the vase of roses from the fool who fancied her. She recalled shredding the roses and collapsing on top of them crying. The next thing should've been the dagger through the heart. So what had gone wrong? This was truly puzzling. Then from the corner of her mind she had a recollection of strong arms and a soft low voice. Then all was black.

Deciding that she had had enough of sitting in the dark in a strange-if admittedly soft warm bed- she reached for her wand but could not find it. Making to move out of the bed and go investigate, Hermione then noticed the large luminous eyes regarding her unblinkingly from the end of the king-sized bed.

Hermione shrieked and jumped; being so close to the edge of the bed tumbled out of it and in a last-second attempt to keep from falling seized the blankets and consequentially brought them down with her.

The animal landed on top of her with a yelp as they both hit the floor with a crash. Hermione had all the wind knocked out of her when the creature hit her she couldn't gather the breath to scream. She looked up fearfully at the big dog and realized with a jolt that this was not just a huge canine but a full-grown wolf that was growling softly at her. Hermione remained frozen as the wolf regarded her with it's blue-grey eyes then with it's paws pressed firmly against her shoulders moved it's muzzle to her throat.

Hermione, even though she was sure she was about to die, felt a wave of insane happiness. This was finally it. She would be back in his arms soon. Just as she felt the large teeth scrape against her neck however, there was a sound of a door opening ad light spilled onto the scene.

"Down Niquita! Heel!" a voice snapped through the air coldly.

The wolf clambered off of her with an air of indifference and Hermione felt a strong wave of disappointment as the thing she wanted the most was snatched away from her once again.

The wolf had come to sit beside her master, of which all Hermione could see was a pair of black boots blocking the doorway. Sitting up cautiously as her breathing returned to normal and tears sprung out from her eyes as she began to curse aloud.

She looked up and her shock at seeing professor Snape standing there beside the dog felt detached. She was so sure that she would see him again hear his voice in her ear feel his hands in her hair, and it had been snatched away from her not once, but twice tonight. She didn't care if the professor was to blame or not, she immediately began calling him every name she could think of.

She hardly noticed as Snape walked forward and picked her up off of the ground easily letting her curse and lash out as he strode from the room, the big dog never once leaving his side.

He set her down on a large chocolate brown couch then shoved a blue flask into her hand.

"Drink it." He ordered, and she obeyed silently, glaring the whole time.

Once she had downed the entire flask he hissed "Stay here. I will deal with you later."

He left with the giant dog and as the door closed she felt the magic set upon it. Cursing aloud again she began immediately trying every way she could think of to escape.

'♪

AN:// Well, that didn't go exactly as planned. Oh well. Hermione has finally entered the scene! The stage is set and all that's left are a few little things then the plot should fall into place and this thing should really get rolling!! XD

Please review, whether it's just to yell and scream at me for this story or whatever. Let me know what you think. Any sort of comment is appreciated.

XIII Welcome To My Nightmare- it's over now and you all now what to do. REVIEW!!! if you don't i'll hunt you down. i'm actally a ninja (in traning) who is also a witch.i know how to do Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu (sorry if i spelt those wrong) and magic!!! woops said to much. ingnore what i just said, but still hear my warning.


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